These days, creating a concept album seems to be in vogue and many bands try to come up with a “concept” album that has no real story to share. Swampcult, the enigmatic duo from Netherlands on the other hand take up established tales of mystery and create their own musical rendition of said tale. Their second full length effort titled ‘The Festival’, focuses on the H.P. Lovecraft short story of the same name. Swampcult’s style of black metal meets doom, is perfectly suited for this weird, mysterious story and the band makes best use of the atmosphere to drive the narration forward.

Usually I am very wary of bands that use synth in metal and try to avoid such bands as much as possible. But the horror themed doom metal band Blizaro is a band that has won over me and my criticism of synth usage. Returning after a period of 6 years, Blizaro make a spectacular comeback with their second full length ‘Cornucopia della Morte’. The band’s unique mix of doom metal with soundscapes that one would find in old school horror movies is refreshing and the progressive leanings of Blizaro only adds to the uniqueness of the sound.

Following a 5 year break after their debut release, Slabdragger have concocted a follow up that is worth the long wait. For the uninitiated, the band name gives away the style pursued by this UK based power trio; slow, heavy music that trudges at a measured pace. ‘Rise of the Dawncrusher’ comes off as a well rounded affair that makes use of the best elements of bluesy stoner metal, doom metal and sludge. The lines differentiating these styles are blurred on this record and the result is giant monolithic album that spans over an hour long, which manages to keep the listener tuned in without imparting a sense of fatigue.

“Cave man metal” is a term often used by critics (including yours truly) to address music that is dumbed down for the least common denominator. Primitiv proves to a be an exception where the band embraces the idea of primitive sounding music to create a death metal album that is unapologetically heavy and relentless in its intent to crush everything. The band’s debut album ‘Immortal & Vile’ comes off as a concept album of sorts, where Primitiv cross the thresholds of sounding old school, taking the music into ancient realms. Every element of the music lends itself to the ancient feel of the music, resulting in a coherent and well put together album.

First off, no numbering. I don’t feel any of these albums are comparable, they each stand out on their own merits at what they do. And also, I don’t want to start this by saying what a great year this has been for music.

2015 was in my opinion just as good as the year before that and the year before that and so on…

There´s never been a golden age of music, the majority of music put out every year is mostly shit, but if you look hard enough you can find some gold here and there. And indeed I found some really good stuff this last year as well.